Jitu, Heena shoot bronze medals
NEWDELHI: Pistol aces Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu bagged a bronze each to continue India’s medal charge at the 10th Asian Championship 10m Rifle/Pistol in Wako City, Japan.
Jitu won an individual bronze in the men’s 10m Air Pistol, which also helped the Indian team comprising Shahzar Rizvi and Omkar Singh besides Jitu, to bag the Team gold in the event.
Heena claimed an individual bronze in the women’s 10m Air Pistol. Her effort, along with teammates Shri Nivetha Paramantham and Harveen Srao, helped the Team clinch a silver.
India added another individual bronze through Anmol Jain in the junior men’s 10M Air Pistol as well as the Team silver in the event, thanks to the combined exploits of Anmol, Gaurav Rana and Abhishek Arya.
Having won 11 medals on the first two days of the competition, India’s medal count stands at four gold, six silver and seven bronze for a total of 17 medals. In the men’s 10m Air Pistol, it was Shahzar Rizvi who topped qualification with a score of 583. He along with Jitu, who shot 577 to finish fifth in qualifying, made it two Indians in the eight-man final.
5 INDIANS IN MAIN DRAW OF WORLD SQUASH
MANCHESTER: Two of the three Indians in the fray for the qualifying round made it to the main draw of the men’s section in the World Squash Championship.
While Vikram Malhotra lost out in the final round of the qualifying phase, both Mahesh Mangaonkar and Harinder Pal Sandhu went past the final hurdle to earn a slot each in the main draw. Saurav Ghosal has made it to the main draw as a direct entry. In the women’s section, Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal Karthik have made it to the main draw. Chinappa is the 14th seed in the event.
ZEEL AND DHRUTI IN MAIN DRAW
PUNE: Zeel Desai and wild card Dhruthi Venugopal scored impressive wins in the final qualifying round to join six other Indians in the main draw of the $25,000 NECC-ITF Women’s Tennis tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana courts here today.
Dhruti, with a significantly better first serve percentage, scored a 6-2 2-6 7-5 win over eighth-seeded Emily WebleySmith in a match that lasted for 2 hours and 5 minutes.
The Indian player took more chances that came her way, while the Briton was undone by the 12 double faults she committed. Both fired three aces each but Emily managed to convert only five of the 14 break points that she earned, while Dhruthi converted 6 out of 12. On the other court, 16th seed Zeel Desai played one of the longest matches of the day in shutting out No 2 seed from Britain, Samantha Murray, 7-5 2-6 6-4 in 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Zeel worked her way into the match with hard work from the baseline as her game was strewn with 14 double faults as compared to 9 from Samantha. The Indian converted seven of the 12 break points she earned.
JINDAL PANTHER WIN AMITY POLO TITLE
NEW DELHI: Jindal Panther defeated Delhiites Polo by five goals to three-and-a-half in the final of the Amity Polo Cup (8 goal) tournament at the Jaipur Polo Ground on Sunday. It was a day when seasoned Simran Singh Shergill could do nothing wrong as he scored all five goals for Jindal Panther to earn his team more laurels this season. For the losers, Dhruvpal Godara scored 2 and Gaurav Sahgal scored 1.